The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a report on Tuesday, detailing a high increase in heroin use across the country.
The study found groups who didn’t have high usage rates of the drug before were the new common offenders. Those groups include women, and people with higher incomes or private insurance.
In Medford, police sergeant Tom Ianieri said the increase in heroin use has been noted in the Rogue Valley as well.
“Especially the past five years, six years,” Sergeant Ianieri said, “we’re probably finding as much heroin as we are meth, if not more heroin.”
The CDC also released statistics on heroin-related deaths. The study found more than 8,200 people died in 2013 alone, and death by overdose nearly doubled between 2011 and 2013.
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